1) The databases I showed John and available to most people are ACCESSIBLE WITHOUT having to visit the library. They are on via the web. In some areas you don’t even need a library card.

2) FindArticles provides access to about 700 pubs.

Several of the resources I showed John have access to thousands of publications. For example, between
Academic Academic Index and InfoTrac OneFile a user would have access to over 4000 publications, many with archives back to the early 1990’s.

I also mentioned NetLibrary to John. This resource, available remotely is from many libraries, provides access to several thousand, in print, books.

You don’t even have to go to the local library to find the Thomson/Gale info for free. Instead of paying a monthly subscription on some sites as you state, you can go to Looksmart Articles on the Web and find the Gale articles for no fee.
See my write-up in my weblog last week where I address the mixed-up world of pricing models on the Web: